Cowboys & Zombies

Last Thursday night the Baron ran a fun, little game using his A Fistful of Lead rules with a twist...Zombies! It saddened me to miss his annual zombie hunt game the night before Halloween, so it was good to get my zombie fix after all. FFL are a simple, fun set of skirmish level rules you can find at Kickstarter: A fistful of Lead -Reloaded. Read more about the shootout over at The Baron's Blog.

Black Powder - Kernstown

On Thursday night we were in for some 28mm ACW action using Black Powder rules along with Regimental Fire & Fury's Kernstown scenario from the RF&F Vol. 1 scenario book. The Baron was kind enough to run through the rules for us since this would be the second time I have ever played a game using BP rules. The first battle of Kernstown, an early battle of Stonewall Jackson's famous Valley Campaign, was fought on March 23, 1862. It was the only battle Stonewall Jackson would lose during his illustrious military career, however it was a strategic victory for the Confederacy due to the pressure it placed on President Lincoln to take Jackson's small Valley District army more seriously, subsequently committing more Union forces to the northern Shenandoah Valley in order to protect Washington. As a fan of Jackson, it was a lot of fun to set this scenario up and play it out.

As it was historically, a much larger Union force under the command of Nathan Kimball would attempt to at least kick Jackson's army back up the valley and out of reach of the U.S. capital. On this night the Rebels would do a fine job of securing nice defensive positions while landing some solid blows on the chin of Kimball's division. We discovered early on the RF&F scenario would not make a clean conversion to BP. For one, the RF&F scenario is laid out with some commanders more that the 12" BP command radius from their respective units (in a few cases, a commander is not on the field at the same time as some of his regiments). This proved a challenge in activating units. We will need to craft a way to address this challenge.  Despite a few small hiccups, it was a fun night. The battle was moving in a direction that could have provided a few more hours of play, but was decided a draw at 10:30 p.m.


Tyler's 3rd Brigade led by the 7th Ohio charge the 27th Virginia.

Jackson observes enemy positions from the heights of the sandy ridge.

Regiments of Tyler's brigade smash into the 27th Virginia.  The 27th would earn its name as part of the Stonewall Brigade.

Units of Kimball's 1st and 2nd brigades begin to flood in from the east.

The battle begins to take shape.

"Forward, men! To the sound of the guns!"

The Union center would begin to take its lumps.

Regiments from the Rebel 1st and 2nd brigades enter the field. Bad rolls would delay multiple regiments from the Stonewall Brigade to get into the fight, however this would not hinder Jackson's army significantly. 

Union cavalry moves in to strengthen the right.

The Union battle line broadens.

The heaviest losses on both sides would occur in the center. 

Last of the Dixons

I recently painted the last of a huge batch of 25mm ACW Dixons I bought really cheap several years ago. I have liked these models from the first day I started painting them. While they are cartoonish in appearence, they are always very clean ratings and are easy to paint.

Next up: I'll be hosting an ACW night in November where the Baron will run a game using a scenario from the Regimental Fire & Fury Vol. 1 scenario book and Black Powder rules. Also, I have begun the prep work for painting up my first batch of Foundry AWI models for use with the Baron's Fistful of Lead skirmish rules. Look for an upcoming kickstarter for his brand-new version of this fantastic ruleset.

Dipping A Toe Into The DBA Waters

My family and I like to play the occasional boardgame, but I think it would be fun to play something fun and simple using 15mm EIR with my oldest daughter. With a little time to kill last Saturday afternoon, I trekked south to the Baron's to get learned up on DBA (and watch some lousy Mizzou Tiger football). With there being virtually no interest in DBA in our group, I have never had the opportunity to try it, however Jaye obliged me and I found it to be a set of rules easy to catch on to for young and old alike. We played two very basic Roman civil war games that ran rather quickly. I think this is a ruleset I can take on the road and play with the girl when we are looking for something to do.

A WW2 Clash

With the Baron vacationing in the Great Northwest, I was honored to pick up the flag and open my doors to the group for a casual night of gaming. Fellow Basement General Bill McHarg will soon be moving to Colorado, so it would only be appropriate to let him choose the game last night (okay, he didn't have much to choose from since I am only prepared to offer ACW and WW2), so we gave Bolt Action another shot. Even with a BA novice on hand, the rules seemed to go a little bit smoother this time around. We deviated from the rules a bit on activations and turns in order to speed the game along. I feel that a few more experiences with this ruleset will translate into some fun WW2 games.

It was a pretty basic scenario pitting a small German force against a fairly equal U.S. force. Most of the action centered around a courtyard where an isolated German para unit eventually was overrun by American forces. Overall a fun night spent with a friend we will miss and look forward to seeing again.

28mm Union Cavalry

I'd had a few boxes of unpainted ACW cavalry lying around that needed to be painted. I've been eyeing a Battle of Kernstown scenario in the Regimental Fire & Fury Scenario Book Vol. 1 http://www.fireandfury.com/products/desc_rffscenarios1.shtml, so these guys would come in handy to represent cav units from West Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan.

A handful are Perry plastics and Sash & Saber, but most are Foundry.

Completed Roman Army

Well, kind of. My 15mm EIR army is at least ready for the table. I still need to add some elephant mahouts, some allied (Spanish cavalry), and some skirmishers, but for the most part they are ready for action. This has been about a 2 year work in progress as I completed the first units a few years back and got an itch to complete the project at the beginning of this year.

From the beginning I decided to base them to be used for DBA/DBM play in case I ever decide to sell them, however, now with To The Strongest by Simon Miller ( http://bigredbat.blogspot.com ), they will be used primarily with this fantastic ruleset. The models are a mix of mostly Corvus Belli and Old Glory with a few Xyston's thrown in for good measure (and they make a cool Pompey the Great set). All of the multiple-base units are based on magnetic bases and metal movement trays by Shogun Miniatures ( http://shogunminiatures.com ).

On a final note, please forgive the photos, as I'm not quite the mini photog.